Last.FM Addiction: I must scrobble!!!

I remember years ago when I first joined Last.FM I wasn't so sure I wanted to let those powers that be see that I was listening to music on my computer because of the downloading legality and the idea that mp3's were against the law. Well those years ticked away and both downloading and mp3's are mainstream now. Music has moved from the brick and morter of a store selling a product to being an online digital file shared by some or purchased from an online outlet. I have to say Last.FM has made listening to music even more fun for me since I returned to using the service a couple years ago.

I only wish that I'd have been using it the entire time so I could see what I think I listened to a lot and what I really did listen to a lot. I've noticed that some of my absolute favorite artists don't have as high a play count as I'd believed they would. I honestly don't like using any player besides Winamp on my computer and now with the scrobbling it does to Last.FM I hate putting on a CD because I don't get the songs scrobbled to my account. But now with this addiction I've formed with scrobbling I've found myself not listening to some stuff because I didn't want it to show up in my list that might make my library uncool. I've not allowed that to take over my entire listening rotation but, I've had to be conscious of it creeping in and obscuring my eclectic listening habits. I love so much when it comes to genre's of music from country to heavy metal to hip-hop and just about every other genre there is today.

The coolest thing I find about the whole Last.FM idea is that I can see what my friends are into and what stuff they listen to and maybe even influence them to try something new from what I know is good music. See my holier than thou opinion when it comes to music is always present and having this program helps satisfy that part of my personality. I've been a music fanatic since I was three years old and got my first record player as a child. It was not one of those silly Fisher Price plastic deals it was a portable stereo with a proper needle that played real records and music or those read along storybooks with the record in the back cover.

So back to the point of scrobbling, I've had an I-Pod for a few years now which I do enjoy but it doesn't scrobble live to Last.FM I have to rely on the terrible I-Tunes program to work with Last.FM's scrobbler plug-in which doesn't work very well at all. Since I've had such issues getting the plays from my I-Pod to Last.FM I've been using it less and less the past few months and moved to using my smartphone and a great music player app called CloudSkipper which works perfectly and instantly with Last.FM. I have to admit that I love the large display of album art as the music plays as well. This app is solid as a rock as well it never crashes or locks up and it never fails to scrobble which I-Tunes does on a regular basis in a Windows 7 environment.

The whole computer music listing option is wonderful for me because I've moved easily into the digital age and leaving my cassettes in their cases far away in my bedroom. Sure I'd love to have them out on display because their presence is very cool to have in view. I still have my one CD shelf made by my stepfather as a gift which houses a few hundred CD's. From time to time I grab something and encode it to mp3 for my digital music collection. At some point I will get a computer room/office space again and at that point the purchase of a USB cassette deck and USB turntable will be made. That way I can pull all the music I want from my collection off the old formats and bring them into the digital age to be scrobbled to Last.FM.

The whole idea of being able to see what my music listening life has been when I'm an old man will be very gratifying to me and that future opportunity is part of my drive to scrobble and be an efficient member of Last.FM. I can only hope that it stays around long enough to outlast me and maybe when my kid/kids have children of their own they can go see who and what their grandpa was and what fueled my passion for music. I can only hope more of my friends can find their way to Last.FM and join the addiction of scrobbling their musical history. Get Glue is another cool app that might be of interest if you enjoy the whole idea of leaving your entertainment DNA on the internet. Remember don't be afraid to be honest about your listening habits so you can get a real identity of what rocks your world.